Lot  240 Ravenel Autumn Auction 2022 Taipei

Ravenel Autumn Auction 2022 Taipei

Love – Forever

Yayoi KUSAMA (Japanese, 1929)

2005

Mixed media, edition no. 1/15 (hand painted; unique) 44(H) x 38(diameter) cm

44(H) x 38(diameter) cm

Estimate

TWD 9,000,000-16,000,000

HKD 2,233,000-3,970,000

USD 284,600-506,000

CNY 2,018,000-3,587,000

Sold Price

TWD 10,200,000

HKD 2,595,420

USD 333,442

CNY 2,344,828


Signature


This sculpture is to be sold with a registration card issued by Yayoi Kusama Studio

+ OVERVIEW

When Yayoi Kusama left for the United States at the age of 28, she might have simply sought sought to break free from her mother’s grip and her country’s conservatism. As she has said herself, the Yayoi Kusama we know today wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the US. For her, the fateful decision to move on to America remains one of the most critical moments of her life. Yayoi Kusama’s works range from painting and sculpture, to performance art, installation, and film, containing different methods and elements from pop art, feminism, surrealism, native art, abstract expressionism, and happenings. She heals herself through art and demonstrates her rich artistic life with a significant and continuous daily practice that soothes the spirit and extends a collaborating hand across disciplines.



“With just one polka dot, nothing can be achieved. In the universe, there is the sun, the moon, the earth, and hundreds of millions of stars,” the artist has mused. “Pursuing the philosophy of the universe through art under such circumstances has led me to what I call stereotypical repetition.”- Yayoi Kusama



She hoped that people of different backgrounds would begin attempting to explore the realm of all that is possible and prioritise creative thought in the plastic arts to make room for new creative and playful potential in arts and cultural spaces. Her work became a sensation as it bounced between art and design and took form as the most alluring of contemporary plastic arts: a multitude of dots that cover the surfaces of all kinds of things, from walls and floors, to canvases, objects, and bodies, even the artist herself. Repeated lines of dots extend into infinity, creating confusion about what a space actually is, and leading the viewer to unconsciously fall into a dizzied state, unsure of how to distinguish the reality from the illusion. This work, “Love-Forever”, contains Yayoi Kusama’s classic imagery and dots. A densely coloured, monochromatic polka dot pattern fills the work and is repeated to the point of producing a certain dizzy, hypnotic feeling. Its vivid colour goes beyond our visual experience and seems to spread through the cosmos. As her hallucinations are combined with real experiences, environments, and material things, her ego enters an infinite plane, forming a world that floats totally on its own. It is a perfect presentation of what makes the work of Yayoi Kusama truly original, and the everproliferating, deforming dots can be thanked for having spurred a breakthrough in the plastic arts and making this work an undeniable ‘Yayoi Kusama’.



Related Info

Modern & Contemporary Art

Ravenel Autumn Auction 2022 Taipei

Sunday, December 4, 2022, 2:00pm